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What destroys conservatives with sex scandals is Republican voters who won't tolerate them. It is why Democrats can more easily get away with this stuff. Democratic voters are less family values oriented and less traditional, therefore they care far less about these kinds of things. Republicans are far more vulnerable to sex scandals and the resulting hypocrisy charge precisely because of the core voters they appeal to.

I agree with that statement.

The media didn't destroy Cain, Cain destroyed himself. If none of these accusations were true, he would not have dropped out. Period. His problem was he couldn't adequately defend himself against these charges which means there was likely something to them. There is just no way around it.

I don't see it quite that way. Herman Cain immediately lost a lot of support following the initial allegations of past sexual harassment that were unsubstantiated and vehemently denied by Cain. The accusation by the woman that claimed a 13-year 'affair' was probably vastly exaggerated by her but held enough truth to make it hard for Cain to flatly deny, as he did the other accusations. I believe it was a form of 'death by a thousand cuts' that forced Cain to drop out.

Women voters are notorious for quickly abandoning any political candidate that is smeared with a sex scandal, real or imagined and, as you correctly state and as was demonstrated on FR, conservatives - male and female - won't tolerate a candidate that is suspected of having extra-martial affairs or disrespecting women. The left made sure that Cain had enough women accusing him of 'inappropriate behavior' that he couldn't keep up his defense and remain focused, financed and viable.

So, in my opinion, the left won, although Cain, like Nixon, 'gave them a sword'. I believe that eventually, long after it matters anymore, Herman Cain will be proved innocent of the smear that he 'harassed' women and conducted a 13-year affair (while battling stage 4 liver cancer). However, by then, few will care and the election of 2012, for better or worse, will have been long since decided.

Agreed. What some on this thread apparently either do not understand or refuse to accept is that social values - family values, if you will - are at the heart of conservatism.

It's not just about economic issues: as Pres. Bush once said: "America is great because she is good; if she ceases to be good, she will no longer be great."